Apparatus and method for handling articles

ABSTRACT

The invention includes an apparatus ( 01 ) and a method for handling articles ( 02 ). The apparatus ( 01 ) includes
         a first conveyor ( 03 ) for the supply of articles ( 02 ),   a second conveyor ( 04 ) for the supply of outer packagings ( 05 ), and   a third conveyor ( 06 ) for the discharge of outer packagings items ( 07 ). The apparatus also includes   a placing surface ( 08 ) formed by a section ( 62, 60 ) of the third conveyor ( 06 ) and arranged between the first conveyor ( 03 ) and the second conveyor ( 04 ).       

     A transfer device ( 09 ) for the transferring of supplied outer packagings ( 05 ) from the second conveyor ( 04 ) to the placing surface ( 08 ), and
         a transplacing device ( 10 ) for transferring articles ( 02 ) from the first conveyor ( 03 ) into outer packagings ( 05 ) having been transferred onto the placing surface ( 08 ) are also included.       

     The method includes placing articles ( 02 ) into outer packagings ( 05 ) staged on a placing surface ( 08 ), where the articles ( 02 ) are supplied from one or more article flows of articles ( 02 ). The outer packagings ( 05 ) are supplied independently of the articles ( 02 ) in a transport direction ( 41 ) and are transferred onto the placing surface ( 08 ) individually or groupwise transversely to the transport direction ( 41 ). The outer packaging items ( 07 ) are discharged independently of the supply of articles ( 02 ) and outer packagings ( 05 ) in parallel to the transport direction ( 41 ) and in the direction of the transport direction ( 41 ) or opposite to it.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application claims the benefit of German Application DE 10 2014 221 232.4, filed on Oct. 20, 2014, which is incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an apparatus for handling articles and to a method for handling articles.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The handling of articles frequently involves providing individual or a plurality of articles with an outer packaging, for instance, a cardboard packaging.

In the case of individual articles, this is carried out for their improved protection and/or for their improved sales presentation.

In the case of a plurality of articles, a bundle of a plurality of articles is additionally achieved by the outer packaging.

Bundles represent an effective way of enabling simultaneous handling of a plurality of articles, for instance, for facilitating the transport of a plurality of articles at the same time. For many articles, such as beverage containers, for example, bundles of a plurality of articles held together thus represent the most frequent type of sales units.

The articles can be objects, for instance, such as packaged or unpackaged objects, cardboard packagings, containers, such as beverage bottles or cans, or in themselves bundles, in turn, of a plurality of objects, in which the objects of a bundle can be held together, for instance, by means of an embracing around the periphery of a group of objects, such as, for instance, a strapping, an outer packaging, such as a wrapping, a shrink tube, or a cardboard packaging or a carrying rack, such as a beverage crate, to name but a few conceivable embodiments.

If a plurality of articles is assembled in an outer packaging, these articles can be placed into the outer packaging individually, one after the other, or groupwise, for instance, already according to their arrangement or according to a part of their arrangement in said outer packaging.

In handling articles, for instance, in food technology and/or beverage technology and/or packaging technology and/or in the food industry and/or beverage industry and/or packaging industry, pacing, i.e. being able to handle as many articles as possible within an as short as possible time span, represents a significant cost factor. The faster the pacing, the higher is the article throughput, and the better is thus the utilization of the machines, facilities, and devices intended for this purpose. Pacing can thus be described as the ratio of the number of articles to the period of time within which this number of articles is handled.

In order to be able to achieve high pacings, fully automatic devices, also called transplacing machines or, termed for short transplacers, are used in the packaging technology and in the packaging industry for transferring articles, which transplacers, in connection with the staging of outer packagings, continuously or discontinuously remove the article or the articles respectively to be transferred into an outer packaging from an infeed of articles being transported by means of a first conveyer in, for instance, one or more of article flows of continuous, immediately consecutive articles or articles that are already grouped according to their number and/or already spaced apart from one another according to their later arrangement in the outer packaging, and transfer them into the outer packaging supplied by means of a second conveyer and being staged on it. After the articles have been placed into the outer packaging, the outer packaging thus provided with articles is discharged by means of the second conveyer.

If this involves closable outer packagings into which the articles are transferred, closing of the outer packagings can be carried out simultaneously with or subsequently to placing the complete number of articles to be transferred into the outer packaging, for instance during the further transport by means of the second conveyer.

An apparatus for handling articles that are fed to a continuously operating packaging machine is known from DE 42 04 993 C1. The apparatus comprises a transplacing machine with a plurality of gripper heads for respectively one group of articles to be transferred into an outer packaging having the form of a beverage crate. Each gripper head is arranged at a lever mechanism consisting of respectively four levers articulatedly connected with each other about parallel horizontal lever axes, two of which levers are pivotably arranged about likewise horizontal lever axes at a pivotal central carrier, which is rotatably driven about a central axis running in parallel to the lever axes. Arranged in parallel to the central carrier is a disk with control cams, into which disk pins engage, which are arranged at a part of the levers of each lever mechanism, and thus control a motion sequence of the gripper heads during a revolution of the central carrier about the central axis. The apparatus in addition comprises a first conveyer in the form of a horizontal conveyor belt, which feeds articles to the transplacing machine in a transport direction normal to the central axis and to the lever axes running in parallel thereto, and also, running below the first conveyer, a second conveyer, which transports the beverage crates in transport direction, too. The articles being transported by means of the conveyor belt are arranged in rows, are brought to a halt by a stop means at the end of the conveyor belt, and are received by one of the gripper heads after another. After a group of articles is received by a gripper head, the gripper head moves along in the transport direction of the conveyor belt, lifts up the received articles above the end of the conveyor belt while the stop means at the end of the conveyor belt is lowered, and subsequently lowers the articles to a subjacent level into a beverage crate being transported by means of the second conveyer, which continuously transports beverage crates in a horizontal direction. Subsequent to the lowering and controlled by the control cams, the gripper head first carries out a movement in parallel to the transport direction, while the articles, which were received by the gripper head and placed into an appropriate beverage crate being transported by means of the second conveyer, are released. Meanwhile, further articles advance at the end of the first conveyer. The transfer of the articles being received by a gripper head is completed by the gripper head being raised again, even while it is still moving in transport direction, and the filled beverage crate is transported away following the second conveyer. The further articles, which have advanced in the meantime, can be received by a further gripper head and disposed in a further, following beverage crate.

A similar apparatus is known from DE 43 29 179 A1, with the difference that the gripper heads are not arranged at a central carrier rotating about a horizontal central axis, but rather at a circulating traction means running in a vertical plane.

A similar apparatus is known from DE 33 39 045 A1, with the difference that the gripper heads are circulatingly guided in a horizontal direction at a chain, and are lowered and raised again as well as closed and opened by means of slides, which are guided along horizontally circulating rails.

A disadvantage of such apparatuses for handling articles is their large space requirement in the direction of transport as well as the limited pacing, as only one group of articles after the other is respectively transferred into a beverage crate.

A device for transferring articles, termable transplacing device for short, is known from DE 102 10 353 A1, which device has a gripper head of a plurality of tulip-shaped grippers arranged at a six-axis robot arm, which tulip-shaped grippers are driven individually or groupwise movably in relation to each other within a plane formed by the tulip-shaped grippers during the transferring of the articles.

Even by means of such an apparatus, only one outer packaging after the other can be filled, thus greatly limiting the pacing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One task of the invention is to specify an apparatus and a method for handling articles that allow a higher pacing when providing individual or a plurality of articles, for example articles grouped into an article group and/or into a bundle of assembled articles, with an outer packaging.

The above task is solved respectively by the features of the independent claims. Further advantageous embodiments of the invention are described in the dependent claims.

A first object of the invention accordingly relates to an apparatus for handling articles, comprising a first conveyer for the supply of articles, a second conveyer for the supply of outer packagings, and also a third conveyer for the discharge of outer packagings with articles placed therein.

In addition, the apparatus comprises a placing surface formed by a section, preferably by a start section, of the third conveyer and arranged between the first and the second conveyer, as well as a transfer device for transferring supplied outer packagings from the second conveyer, preferably from an end section of the second conveyer limited, for instance, by a stop means, to a placing surface formed by a section, preferably a start section, of the third conveyer.

Moreover, the apparatus comprises a device, which transplaces articles from the first conveyer into outer packagings having been transferred onto the placing surface.

The transplacing device first seizes the articles staged by means of the first conveyer, then transplaces the seized articles from the first conveyer to the placing surface and, in the process of transferring the articles having been seized by the device and having been transferred from the first conveyer to the placing surface, places them into the outer packagings having been transferred onto the placing surface.

The transfer device is formed and operatable independently of the transplacing device.

The placing surface in connection with the transfer device that is independent of the transplacing device results in an increase in performance with regard to the pacing that is achievable based on an apparatus without placing surface formed by a third conveyer.

The higher pacing is achieved, because, by means of the placing surface in connection with the transfer device that is independent of the transplacing device, articles supplied by means of the first conveyer can be seized by the transplacing device in a first cycle, and the transplacing device can begin with transferring the seized articles by starting a movement of the seized articles from the first conveyer to the placing surface while outer packagings that are still empty are simultaneously transferred, for instance, pushed over, from a section of the second conveyer, preferably from an end section limited in transport direction of the second conveyer by, for instance, an end stop, to the placing surface formed by a section, preferably by a start section of the third conveyer and arranged between the first and the second conveyer, and in a second cycle new, empty outer packagings can be supplied to the end section of the second conveyer while the transferring of the articles having been seized in the first cycle is simultaneously completed in the second cycle by placing articles into the outer packagings staged on the placing surface.

In the second cycle, the transferring of the articles seized in the first cycle is ended by articles seized by the transplacing device being placed into empty outer packagings having been transferred, for instance, pushed over, onto the placing surface in the first cycle, and by a return of the transplacing device from the placing surface to the first conveyer at least being started in order to again seize and transfer articles supplied by the first conveyer.

In a third cycle, the return of the transplacing device from the placing surface to the first conveyer is finally completed. Furthermore, after the transplacing device has left the collision area with the at least one outer packaging standing, now provided with articles placed therein, on the placing surface, the discharge from the placing surface of the at least one outer packaging provided with articles is carried out in the third cycle by operating the third conveyer for at least as long until the at least one outer packaging having previously been provided with articles on the placing surface is removed from the placing surface.

Subsequent to the third cycle follows the cyclically recurring first cycle, followed by a second cycle.

Preferably, the first conveyer and the second conveyer are arranged in parallel to each other along the placing surface, at least in the area of their portions abutting on the placing surface, and in parallel to the section of the third conveyer, which section forms the placing surface. In the arrangement in parallel to each other, the transport directions of the conveyer run in parallel to each other at least in the area of their portions abutting on the placing surface and in parallel to the section of the third conveyer, which section forms the placing surface.

This applies to transport directions of all conveyers running in the same direction as well as to transport directions of at least two conveyers running in opposite directions.

Preferably, the portions of the conveyers arranged in parallel to each other overlap one another and the section of the third conveyer, which section forms the placing surface, by the length of at least two outer packagings. In this way, two or more outer packagings can be staged simultaneously on the placing surface, and articles can be simultaneously placed into the plurality of staged outer packagings. The pacing can thus be further increased.

The direction of the transfer of outer packagings from the second conveyer to the placing surface, termed for short transfer direction and being carried out by the transfer device, runs, in a horizontal direction, preferably transversely, preferentially orthogonal to the transport direction of the second conveyer.

The transfer direction carried out by the transfer device thus runs, in a horizontal direction, preferably transversely, preferentially orthogonal to the transport directions of both the second conveyer and, also particularly preferentially, the third conveyer.

By the transversal and preferably orthogonal horizontal transfer direction in relation to the transport directions of the second and the third conveyer, a plurality of empty outer packagings can be respectively simultaneously transferred from the second conveyer to the placing surface, whereby articles can be simultaneously placed into a plurality of outer packagings that have been put down on the placing surface. The pacing can thus be significantly increased.

The transfer device can comprise at least one slider.

The second conveyer and the placing surface formed by a section, preferably a start section, of the third conveyer are preferentially located on a common, first level, whereas the first conveyer is preferably located on a higher, second level. A vertical stroke of the transplacing device, which vertical stroke is necessary for placing articles into outer packagings, can thus be reduced to the essential, whereby the pacing can be further increased.

Preferably, the second level is located above the first level by at least the height of an outer packaging, which is initially open and to be closed after placing the articles therein, as the case may be. In the instance of flaps for closing that protrude to the top from an outer packaging designed as a closable cardboard packaging, the second level is preferentially located accordingly higher, by the height of the flaps protruding above the first level, than in the instance of the outer packaging being closed, for instance, with a separately provided lid.

The closing of the outer packagings with articles placed therein can be carried out while still on the placing surface, for instance, together with or subsequent to placing the articles, or in a separate treatment step, for instance, subsequent to or in the further course of the third conveyer of the apparatus for handling articles. For instance, the outer packagings with articles placed therein can be closed with lids in the further course of the third conveyer.

Prior to placing the articles into outer packagings having been transferred onto the placing surface, compartments, also termed so-called baskets, can be inserted into the outer packagings, which compartments assign fixed positions to the articles within the outer packagings and thus protect them, during the further transport of the outer packagings with articles placed therein until the articles are withdrawn and consumed, from colliding with each other and rubbing against each other, which otherwise would lead to a negative impression of the quality by scuffing, for instance, of information applied onto the articles in the form of labels, for example, and/or by the articles damaging each other.

The compartments can already have been or be inserted into the outer packagings prior to the transfer of the outer packagings to the placing surface, or the compartments can be inserted into the outer packagings prior to or together with or after the articles being placed into the outer packagings. The subsequent introduction of compartments, in particular with lightweight articles that are shiftable with little effort within the outer packagings, has the advantage of a simpler placing of the articles in the outer packagings, along with a reduced effort for controlling, because articles with a shape, for example, tapering conically or in a similar manner toward their oppositely located contact surfaces, such as beverage bottles with a bottle neck widening at least sectionwise from the top downward, can be horizontally shifted within the outer packagings by the compartments when these are inserted.

The compartments can be introduced into the outer packagings, for instance, while still on the second conveyer, preferentially in the area of an end section of the second conveyer particularly preferentially forming a portion of the second conveyer running in parallel to the placing surface, or the compartments can be introduced into the outer packagings, for instance, already together with or subsequent to erecting these, or they can already be integrated into an according cardboard packaging, wherein the compartments unfold within the outer packaging when the cardboard packaging is erected.

In connection with introducing compartments prior to placing articles into the outer packagings, a separate introduction surface can be provided between the second conveyer and the placing surface. Accordingly, an additional device for transfer, which can also be part of a transfer device or comprised by it, can be provided.

In the further course of the third conveyer of the apparatus for handling articles, a stacking station can be provided, where, for instance, closed outer packagings with articles placed therein are grouped into stack layers and stacked onto a stack, which is then discharged in order to make room for stacking up a new stack after reaching a specified stacking height according to a specified number of stack layers stacked on top of each other at the stacking station.

The articles supplied by means of the first conveyer are preferentially already sorted into article groups to be respectively placed into an outer packaging. The articles supplied by means of the first conveyer can abut on each other or they can be supplied lined up one after the other with gaps between them. The articles supplied by means of the first conveyer can be supplied in one row or in a plurality of rows running in parallel. For this purpose, the articles can be transferred to the first conveyer via a suitable infeed, and be guided in one or in a plurality of lanes oriented in parallel to each other after the transfer to the first conveyer.

The articles supplied by means of the first conveyer accordingly form a single- or multiple-row article flow of articles lined up one after the other uninterruptedly and/or with gaps between them.

Before the articles are subsequently placed into the outer packagings by means of the apparatus for handling articles, the said articles can have been previously treated along an infeed to the first conveyer, for instance, by producing a container and/or cleaning an outer and/or inner surface and/or cooling and/or filling and/or closing, in order to name only a few examples of treating articles without claim to completeness of the list, and/or the articles can have been previously handled along an infeed to the first conveyer, for instance, by separating a number of articles from one or more of article flows of articles being transported immediately following each other and/or grouping a number of articles into article groups and/or compiling and assembling a number of articles into bundles, in order to name only a few examples of handling articles without claim to completeness.

The conveyer preferentially comprise at least one horizontal conveyor device, such as, for instance, a belt conveyor and/or a roller conveyor.

The outer packagings can preferentially be cardboard packagings, for instance, in the form of cardboard boxes with or without compartments arranged or arrangeable therein for separating and/or keeping apart individual articles from each other.

It is obvious that the invention can be realized by an apparatus for handling articles with:

a first conveyer supplying articles in a first transport direction,

a second conveyer supplying outer packagings in a second transport direction preferentially directed in parallel to and running in the same direction as or opposite to the first transport direction,

a third conveyer discharging outer packagings with articles placed therein in a third transport direction preferentially directed in parallel to and running in the same direction as or opposite to the first and second transport direction,

a placing surface formed by a section, preferably by a start section, of the third conveyer and arranged between the first and the second conveyers,

a transfer device for transferring supplied outer packagings from the second conveyer to the placing surface, and

a transplacing device for transferring articles from the first conveyer into outer packagings having been transferred onto the placing surface.

A second object of the invention relates to a method for handling articles, which method provides that articles are placed into outer packagings staged on a placing surface, which articles are supplied in one or in a plurality of article flows of articles lined up one after the other uninterruptedly and/or with gaps between them and/or grouped, which outer packagings themselves in turn are supplied independently of the articles in a transport direction and are transferred onto the placing surface individually or groupwise transversely to the transport direction and, after the articles have been placed therein, they are discharged in parallel to the transport direction—now provided with articles placed therein—in the direction of the transport direction or opposite to it, independently of the supply of articles and independently of the supply of outer packagings.

Both the apparatus and the method can alternatively or additionally have individual or a combination of a plurality of features initially described in connection with the prior art and/or in one or more of documents mentioned regarding the prior art.

Moreover, the apparatus can alternatively or additionally have individual or a combination of a plurality of features previously described in connection with the method, as well as the method can alternatively or additionally have individual or a combination of a plurality of features previously described in connection with the apparatus.

It is important to emphasize that the outer packagings, which have been supplied to the described apparatus for handling articles and/or to the described method for handling articles, can be staged by means of a facility being described in the following for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings, which facility carries out a method described subsequently to the facility for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings.

In the instance of compartments and/or outer packagings arranged in a standing position, the access openings through which articles can be introduced into the compartments and/or outer packagings are in a horizontal plane.

The facility has a cardboard packaging supply comprising at least one stack of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged lying on top of each other.

The cardboard packagings consist of a plurality of cardboard packaging walls interconnected with each other, for instance, by bending edges and/or adhesive joints and/or slot-in connections, which cardboard packaging walls can be cut out and/or punched out from sheet-formed material, for example. In a collapsed state at least two cardboard packaging walls connected with each other form a top and a bottom flat side, respectively, of a flatly collapsed cardboard packaging.

The facility further has an erecting device arranged next to the cardboard packaging supply.

The facility moreover has a gripping device for simultaneously seizing one respective top cardboard packaging after the other from each stack of the cardboard packaging supply of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged on top of each other.

The number of stacks of the cardboard packaging supply of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged lying one on top of each other preferentially corresponds to the number of cardboard packagings respectively simultaneously seizable or seized, as the case may be, by the gripping device.

Per each cardboard packaging simultaneously seized by the gripping device, the gripping device has at least one tool with which a cardboard packaging lying topmost on a stack of the cardboard packaging supply can be seized and lifted at a cardboard packaging wall of its top flat side.

In order to be able to move the at least one tool of the gripping device horizontally between the cardboard packaging supply and the erecting device, and preferentially, for bridging height differences and/or for expanding cardboard packagings to compartments and/or outer packagings, also vertically in space, the gripping device moreover has at least one manipulator with a manipulator head that is at least horizontally movable along a horizontal axis and preferentially also vertically movable along a vertical axis, at which manipulator head the at least one tool of the gripping device is arranged.

The erecting device and the cardboard packaging supply are arranged next to each other in the direction of the horizontal axis.

Preferentially, the erecting device as well as the surface of the cardboard packaging supply formed by the topmost cardboard packaging of the at least one stack of cardboard packagings are located at the same level, at least in a starting position.

Particularly preferentially, the surface of the cardboard packaging supply formed by the topmost cardboard packaging of the at least one stack of cardboard packagings is located at a level that is higher by at least the height of a lying, expanded set of compartments and/or of a lying, expanded outer packaging than a level of the erecting device formed by the at least one tool of the erecting device in the horizontal position of its at least one carrier. In this way, a vertical stroke of the manipulator head in a return movement from the erecting device to the cardboard packaging supply, which is required for seizing the next cardboard packagings after expanding a cardboard packaging to a lying set of compartments and/or to an outer packaging, is not needed, thus increasing the achievable pacing.

The at least one tool of the gripping device arranged at the at least one manipulator head is thus horizontally movable back and forth between the cardboard packaging supply and the erecting device, which is arranged next to the cardboard packaging supply as seen in the direction of a horizontal axis, as well as being, preferentially, liftable and lowerable. The at least one manipulator can be, for instance, a multi-axis robot arm, for example with six axes, or a gantry or a tripod or quadropod, which is laterally movable back and forth along a horizontal axis as well as, preferably, also being liftable and lowerable along a vertical axis, to name but a few conceivable manipulators.

The erecting device has at least one carrier, which is pivotable back and forth, for instance, by swinging down and back up again, for instance, about a pivoting axis running orthogonal to the horizontal axis and orthogonal to the vertical axis, from a horizontal position into a vertical position and vice versa.

The erecting device has at least one tool arranged at its at least one carrier per each cardboard packaging that is simultaneously seizable or seized, as the case may be, by means of the gripping device, with which tool, in its or, as the case may be, in their horizontal position, at least one cardboard packaging having been brought onto the erecting device by means of the gripping device can be seized and held at a cardboard packaging wall of its bottom flat side, and, after expanding the cardboard packagings by increasing the distance between the tools of the gripping device and the erecting device along the vertical axis, for instance, by vertically lifting the tool of the gripper device arranged at the manipulator head, which is in any event preferentially vertically movable, the lying, expanded compartments and/or outer packagings, which are still being held by the at least one tool of the erecting device, are erected to a standing position along with the subsequent disengaging of only the at least one tool of the gripper device by swinging down the carrier.

At its at least one carrier, the erecting device can have a device designed as a folding flap, for example, which holds in form compartments and/or outer packagings, which are expanded and erected, at least until after the pivoting of the at least one carrier of the erecting device about its horizontal pivoting axis running, for instance, orthogonal to the horizontal axis and orthogonal to the vertical axis from a horizontal position into a vertical position, and, as the case may be, prevents them from slipping off the carrier when the at least one tool of the erecting device releases a set of compartments and/or an outer packaging held by it until the end of the expanding.

If the erecting device is designed to be vertically movable, it is possible to omit a vertically movable manipulator head, by it only horizontally transferring cardboard packagings from the cardboard packaging supply to the erecting device, and the erecting device increasing the distance between its tools and the tools of the gripping device for expanding the cardboard packagings to lying compartments and/or outer packagings by moving downward.

In summary, the erecting device together with the gripping device at the same time forms an expanding device, which, by increasing the distance between a cardboard packaging wall of a top flat side of a flatly collapsed cardboard packaging being held by at least one tool of the gripping device and a cardboard packaging wall of a bottom flat side of a flatly collapsed cardboard packaging being held by at least one tool of the erecting device, expands these to a lying set of compartments and/or to an outer packaging.

In the instance of compartments and/or outer packagings arranged in a lying position, the access openings through which articles can be introduced into the compartments and/or outer packagings are, other than those of compartments and/or outer packagings that are arranged in a standing position, not in a horizontal, but rather in a vertical plane.

The facility can furthermore comprise a control device, which at least:

controls the at least one manipulator of the gripping device such that it carries out a cyclical movement path, in the course of which the manipulator lowers the at least one tool onto a cardboard packaging wall of the top flat side of a cardboard packaging lying topmost on at least one stack of the cardboard packaging supply, lifts it up again, traverses to the erecting device, lowers it onto the erecting device and lifts it back up again and finally traverses over the cardboard packaging supply again,

controls the at least one tool of the gripping device such that it, after being lowered, seizes and holds a cardboard packaging wall of the top flat side of a cardboard packaging lying topmost on at least one stack of the cardboard packaging supply until the tool of the gripping device, in the course of the cyclical movement path, has been lifted back up again from the erecting device for at least so far that the cardboard packaging is expanded to a set of compartments and/or to an outer packaging,

controls the at least one carrier of the erecting device such that it carries out a cyclical pivoting movement path, in the course of which it is pivoted about its pivoting axis by 90 degrees from the horizontal to the vertical and back again, wherein the carrier takes up a horizontal position at the latest when the at least one manipulator, during its course of movement, lowers or has lowered the at least one tool of the gripping device onto the erecting device and maintains the horizontal position for as long as until the tool of the gripping device, in the course of the cyclical movement path of the manipulator, has been lifted back up again from the erecting device for at least so far that the cardboard packaging is expanded to a set of compartments and/or to an outer packaging, in order to hereafter take up a vertical position by swinging down and/or pivoting about its pivoting axis, and

controls the at least one tool of the erecting device such that, after lowering the at least one manipulator, the tool seizes a cardboard packaging wall of the bottom flat side of the at least one cardboard packaging being held by the at least one tool of the gripping device and holds it at least for as long as until the cardboard packaging, which is expanded to a set of compartments and/or to an outer packaging, has been erected and is available for its further use by swinging down and/or pivoting the at least one carrier of the erecting device by 90 degrees about its pivoting axis from its horizontal position to its vertical position.

If the erecting device is equipped with a device designed as folding flap at its at least one carrier, which folding flap holds in form compartments and/or outer packagings, which are expanded and erected, at least until after the pivoting of the at least one carrier of the erecting device about its horizontal pivoting axis running, for instance, orthogonal to the horizontal axis and orthogonal to the vertical axis from a horizontal position into a vertical position, and, as the case may be, prevents them from slipping off the carrier when the at least one tool of the erecting device releases a set of compartments and/or an outer packaging held by it until the end of the expanding, then the control device can additionally control this folding flap in such a manner that it is flipped open, at the latest, at the end of the expanding process and in the beginning of the pivoting of the carrier from its horizontal into the vertical position such that, in end of the erecting process, the folding flap holds in form expanded and erected compartments and/or outer packagings and, supports them, as the case may be, from below, for instance, preferably even after the release of the tool of the erecting device for as long as until the expanded and erected compartments and/or outer packagings are supplied for their further use. The control device can subsequently cause the folding flap to return to its starting position in a folded-in state. Alternatively or additionally, the folding out or folding in of at least the part of the folding flap preventing a slipping off can be carried out gravity-supported and/or gravity-controlled, as the case may be.

In dependence on the configuration of the cardboard packagings and of the compartments and/or outer packagings expandable therefrom, the control device can cause the manipulator to carry out a horizontal movement running in parallel and/or orthogonal to the horizontal axis at the same time while the tool of the gripping device is lifted, at the end of which horizontal movement the cardboard packaging wall of the top flat side of a cardboard packaging having been seized by a tool of the gripping device and the cardboard packaging wall of the bottom flat side of a cardboard packaging having been seized by a tool of the erecting device are arranged superposed upon each other as seen from a top view in a horizontal direction, corresponding to two opposite walls of an expanded set of compartments and/or an outer packaging.

Preferably, however, the cardboard packagings are configured such that they can be expanded by a mere increase of distance between the tools of the gripping device and the erecting device. This is possible, for instance, by way of an accordion-like structure with an even number of cardboard packaging walls connecting the cardboard packaging walls being held by the tools at respectively one of their narrow sides with each other.

In dependence on the design of the cardboard packaging, the lifting following the lowering onto the erecting device can thus be carried out exclusively in a vertical direction.

In order to achieve an as high as possible pacing, the control device can cause combined movements of the manipulator in a horizontal and a vertical direction before and after the erecting of cardboard packagings to compartments and/or outer packagings.

As at least one tool per each simultaneously seized cardboard packaging, the gripping device has at least one downwardly directed suction cup, which, by impingement with a vacuum, is able to hold a cardboard packaging lying respectively topmost on a stack of the cardboard packaging supply at one of the cardboard packaging walls of its top flat side by means of the vacuum.

A suction cup has a downwardly open sleeve of an elastic, airtight material as well as a connection leading upward and away from the sleeve for a vacuum source, such as, for instance, a vacuum pump or a negative pressure pump, or a vacuum accumulator connected with a vacuum pump or a negative pressure pump. Preferably, a control opening and closing valve is arranged between each suction cup assigned to a cardboard packaging and the vacuum source. The vacuum source communicates with the suction cup when the valve is opened. In the instance of the downwardly open sleeve not being covered, air flows through the suction cup to the vacuum source, which, strictly speaking, thus represents a drain for the air that is under ambient pressure. In the instance of the downwardly open sleeve being blocked by a cardboard packaging wall, a vacuum forms in the suction cup, and the cardboard packaging wall together with the associated cardboard packaging are held.

Preferably, the gripping device has at least four downwardly directed suction cups as tool per each simultaneously seized cardboard packaging, which suction cups can hold a cardboard packaging lying respectively topmost on a stack in the area of the corners of one of the cardboard packaging walls of its top flat side by means of the vacuum. In comparison to only one suction cup per each simultaneously seized cardboard packaging, this has the advantage of greater redundancy and, at the same time, a greater holding force, which, as explained above, is required for expanding the folded cardboard packagings.

The at least one suction cup of the gripping device per stack of the cardboard packaging supply is arranged at the manipulator, whereby the suction cup can be lowered onto the cardboard packaging supply, lifted back up again with a suction-held cardboard packaging, be laterally traversed to the erecting device and lowered onto it and lifted back up again as well as traversed back to the cardboard packaging supply after the release of the cardboard packaging, which has then been expanded to a set of compartments and/or to an outer packaging.

Preferably, this at least one tool of the erecting device is also one or more of suction cups, for instance.

The cardboard packaging supply can comprise an uprightly standing magazine accommodating one or more of stacks, which magazine is accessible from its top side for removing cardboard packagings. If a plurality of stacks are accommodated in the magazine, they are preferentially at least partly separated by magazine partition walls and/or accommodated in the magazine spaced apart such as will exclude any contact of the individual cardboard packagings of adjacent stacks in the magazine. In this way, the topmost cardboard packagings simultaneously removed from a plurality of stacks of the cardboard packaging supply are prevented from getting caught, thus increasing the operating safety of the facility.

Preferably, the cardboard packaging supply has two or more stacks of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged lying stacked on top of each other, which stacks are adjacent next to each other as seen in a horizontal direction in parallel to the pivoting axis of the at least one carrier of the erecting device.

Two or more stacks of the cardboard packaging supply of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged lying stacked on top of each other, which stacks are adjacent next to each other as seen in a horizontal direction in parallel to the pivoting axis of the at least one carrier of the erecting device, can be arranged offset from one another in a horizontal direction orthogonal to the pivoting axis of the at least one carrier of the erecting device, or they can be aligned with each other as seen in parallel to the pivoting axis of the at least one carrier of the erecting device.

Alternatively or additionally, stacks of the cardboard packaging supply of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged lying stacked on top of each other, which stacks are adjacent next to each other as seen in a horizontal direction in parallel to the pivoting axis of the at least one carrier of the erecting device, can be twisted relative to each other by 90 degrees or 180 degrees or 270 degrees or they can be arranged mirror-invertedly corresponding to a mirroring at a mirror axis running orthogonal to the pivoting axis of the at least one carrier of the erecting device between two adjacent stacks or at a mirror point located between the adjacent stacks.

Preferentially, the erecting device has at least two carriers, which are pivotable from a horizontal position to a vertical position and vice versa respectively about an own pivoting axis. The pivoting axes of the carriers in this instance run in parallel. As seen in a horizontal direction orthogonal to the pivoting axes, the cardboard packaging supply has a number of adjacent stacks of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged lying on top of each other, their number corresponding to the number of carriers that are respectively pivotable about their own pivoting axes.

Particularly preferentially, the erecting device has two carriers, which are pivotable in opposite pivoting directions from a horizontal position to a vertical position and vice versa respectively about an own pivoting axis. The pivoting axes of the carriers run in parallel in this instance, too. As seen in a horizontal direction orthogonal to the pivoting axes, the cardboard packaging supply has two adjacent stacks of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged lying on top of each other. The lying, stacked cardboard packagings of a first stack of the two stacks, which are adjacent next to each other as seen in a horizontal direction orthogonal to the pivoting axes, here are preferably stacked, as seen in relation to a mirror axis running in parallel to the pivoting axes between the two stacks, mirror-invertedly with respect to cardboard packagings, which are also stacked lying, of a second stack of the two stacks, which are adjacent as seen in a horizontal direction orthogonal to the pivoting axes.

Both for the same and for opposite pivoting directions of two or a plurality of carriers of the erecting device about their respectively own pivoting axes can the stacks of the cardboard packaging supply of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings, which are adjacent as seen in a horizontal direction orthogonal to the pivoting axes, be arranged to be aligned with each other or offset from each other in relation to a horizontal axis running orthogonal to the pivoting axes. In this way, the arrangement of the stacks in the cardboard packaging supply can be adapted to the folding of the cardboard packagings such that, after the expanding and erecting of cardboard packagings from stacks correspondingly adjacent to each other in the cardboard packaging supply to compartments and/or outer packagings, the cardboard packagings are arranged, for instance, aligned with each other or offset from each other in relation to a horizontal axis running orthogonal to the pivoting axes.

Similarly as already described for stacks of the cardboard packaging supply arranged adjacent next to each other as seen along the pivoting axes, it is generally also conceivable here to have stacks of the cardboard packaging supply of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged lying stacked on top of each other, which stacks are adjacent next to each other and can be twisted relative to each other by 90 degrees or 180 degrees or 270 degrees or can be arranged mirror-invertedly corresponding to a mirroring at a mirror axis running orthogonal to the pivoting axis of the at least one carrier of the erecting device between two adjacent stacks or at a mirror point located between the adjacent stacks.

If the erecting ends in an offset arrangement and if an aligned arrangement is required for the further handling, it is alternatively conceivable to arrange the carriers of the erecting device movably in parallel to their pivoting axes relative to each other, in order to transfer expanded compartments and/or outer packagings that were erected by means of different carriers of the erecting device into an arrangement aligned with each other.

Each or only one of the carriers of the erecting device can be movably arranged in a horizontal direction relative to each other and/or together with each other such that they can be moved apart from each other during their preferably simultaneous pivoting about their pivoting axes in order to prevent a clashing of expanded compartments and/or outer packagings during the pivoting and/or such that they can be moved toward each other and/or in parallel to each other after reaching the vertical position in order to achieve a grouping of the expanded and erected compartments and/or outer packagings. An adaptation to compartments and/or outer packagings with different external dimensions is thus moreover possible.

By a horizontal movability of the carrier or carriers of the erecting device orthogonal to its or their pivoting axes, a stripping of the expanded and erected compartments and/or outer packagings is further possible, which compartments and/or outer packagings, after the disengaging of the tools of the erecting device, remain standing on devices arranged at the carriers of the erecting device, designed, for instance, as a folding flap for each carrier, which devices prevent expanded compartments and/or outer packagings being erected after the pivoting of the carriers of the erecting device about their horizontal pivoting axes running, for instance, orthogonal to the horizontal axis and orthogonal to the vertical axis from a horizontal position into a vertical position, from slipping off the carrier when tools of the erecting device release compartments and/or outer packagings being held by them at least until the end of the expanding.

The facility can comprise a transfer device, which receives expanded and erected compartments and/or outer packagings from the erecting device, preferentially from the vertical position of the carrier of the erecting device, and supplies them to their further use, for instance, by subsequent inserting of expanded and erected compartments into outer packagings staged elsewhere and/or by the placing of articles into compartments and/or outer packagings.

Arranged at a manipulator, the transfer device can comprise a tool, which receives expanded and erected compartments and/or outer packagings from the erecting device and discharges them by way of a vertical and/or horizontal movement of the manipulator and transfers them to, for instance, a second conveyer of a previously described apparatus for handling articles.

Alternatively, the compartments and/or outer packagings, which are erected to a standing position after the pivoting of the at least one carrier of the erecting device, can also be released by simply disengaging the at least one tool of the erecting device and thus be transferred, for instance, to a horizontal conveyor passing immediately below the erecting device, the horizontal conveyor being formed, for instance, by a second conveyer of a previously described apparatus for handling articles. In this instance, the vertical distance between such a horizontal conveyor and the erecting device can be adjusted such that the compartments and/or outer packagings, which are erected to a standing position after the pivoting of the at least one carrier from its horizontal position to its vertical position, take up an as small as possible distance to the surface of the horizontal conveyor, for instance, grazing the surface. Furthermore conceivable is a set down movement of the erecting device in a vertical direction prior to the release.

The at least one tool of the transfer device can comprise at least one suction cup.

A method for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings, which method can be carried out by a previously described facility, provides to hold the topmost cardboard packaging, coming from above, at a cardboard packaging wall of its top flat side from a stack of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged on top of each other of a supply of cardboard packagings, and to remove it from the stack.

The method for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings subsequently provides to also hold the cardboard packaging, which is being held at a cardboard packaging wall of its top flat side, at a cardboard packaging wall of its bottom flat side from below, as well, and to increase the vertical distance between the cardboard packaging wall, at which the cardboard packaging is being held at its top flat side, and the cardboard packaging wall, at which the cardboard packaging is being held at its bottom flat side, by oppositely pulling so far until the cardboard packaging has been expanded to a lying set of compartments and/or to a lying outer packaging.

The method for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings then provides to release the expanded set of compartments and/or the outer packaging at its cardboard packaging wall that was previously assigned to the top flat side of the cardboard packaging.

Finally, the method for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings provides to tilt the lying, expanded set of compartments and/or the outer packaging still being held at its cardboard packaging wall that was previously assigned to the bottom flat side of the cardboard packaging about a horizontal pivoting axis and to subsequently also release the expanded and now erected set of compartments and/or the outer packaging at its cardboard packaging wall that was previously assigned to the bottom flat side of the cardboard packaging.

Preferably, the method for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings provides to simultaneously expand and erect a plurality of cardboard packagings to compartments and/or outer packagings in the described manner.

Here, respectively two cardboard packagings can form a pair of cardboard packagings to be simultaneously expanded and erected to compartments and/or outer packagings, which, after having been expanded to lying compartments and/or outer packagings, are erected to standing compartments and/or outer packagings in the same or the opposite pivoting direction about respectively own horizontal pivoting axes running in parallel.

The cardboard packagings of a pair of cardboard packagings to be simultaneously expanded and erected to compartments and/or outer packagings can be arranged aligned or offset to each other prior to the expanding. Alternatively or additionally, the cardboard packagings of a pair of cardboard packagings to be simultaneously expanded and erected to compartments and/or outer packagings can be arranged twisted relative to each other by 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees, for example, and/or mirror-invertedly to a mirror axis or a mirror point prior to the expanding.

The compartments and/or outer packagings simultaneously expanded and erected from a pair of cardboard packagings can be arranged aligned or offset to each other after the expanding. Alternatively or additionally, the compartments and/or outer packagings simultaneously expanded and erected from a pair of cardboard packagings can be arranged twisted relative to each other by 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees, for example, and/or mirror-invertedly to a mirror axis or a mirror point after the expanding.

A plurality of cardboard packagings or pairs of cardboard packagings can be simultaneously expanded next to each other, as seen in a direction in parallel to the pivoting axis or axes, to lying compartments and/or outer packagings and subsequently be erected to standing compartments and/or outer packagings.

It is obvious that the facility and/or the method for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings can be realized by an erecting of compartments and/or outer packagings expanded from previously lying cardboard packagings, by continuing, even after releasing their cardboard packaging walls previously assigned to the top flat sides of the cardboard packagings, to hold the expanded compartments and/or outer packagings at their cardboard packaging walls previously assigned to the bottom flat sides of the cardboard packagings, and subsequently pivoting them by 90 degrees about a horizontal pivoting axis of an erecting device still holding the compartments and/or outer packagings at their cardboard packaging walls previously assigned to the bottom flat sides of the cardboard packagings.

Moreover, the facility can alternatively or additionally have individual or a combination of a plurality of features previously described in connection with the method for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings, as well as the method for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings can alternatively or additionally have individual or a combination of a plurality of features previously described in connection with the facility.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURE

In the following passages, the attached figures further illustrate exemplary embodiments of the invention and their advantages. The size ratios of the individual elements in the figures do not necessarily reflect the real size ratios. It is to be understood that in some instances various aspects of the invention may be shown exaggerated or enlarged in relation to other elements to facilitate an understanding of the invention. The same or equivalent elements of the invention are designated by identical reference characters. Furthermore and for the sake of clarity, only the reference characters relevant for describing the respective FIGURE are provided. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples of the device and method according to the invention, while indicating preferred embodiments, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

The only FIG. 1 shows a schematic illustration of: a top view of an apparatus according to the invention for handling articles.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

An apparatus 01 for handling articles 02, as illustrated completely or in parts in FIG. 1, comprises:

a first conveyer 03 for the supply of articles 02,

a second conveyer 04 for the supply of outer packagings 05,

a third conveyer 06 for the discharge of outer packagings 05 with articles 02 placed therein, termed for short outer packaging items 07, and

a placing surface 08, illustrated by a dashed line, formed by a section 62, preferably by a start section 60, of the third conveyer 06, and arranged between the first conveyer 03 and the second conveyer 04, as well as

a transfer device 09, illustrated by a dashed line, for the transfer indicated by arrows 91 of supplied outer packagings 05 from the second conveyer 04 to the placing surface 08, and

a transplacing device 10, illustrated by a dashed line, for the transferring indicated by arrows 101 of articles 02 from the first conveyer 03 into outer packagings 05 having been transferred onto the placing surface 08.

The transplacing device 10 for the transferring indicated by arrows 101 of articles 02 first seizes the articles 02 staged by means of the first conveyer 03, then transplaces the seized articles 02 from the first conveyer 03 to the placing surface 08 and, in the process, places the articles 02 having been seized and having been transferred from the first conveyer 03 to the placing surface 08 by it into the outer packagings 05 having been transferred onto the placing surface 08.

The transfer device 09 for transferring supplied outer packagings 05 from the second conveyer 04 to the placing surface 08 is formed and operatable independently of the transplacing device 10 for transferring articles 02 from the first conveyer 03 into outer packagings 05 having been transferred onto the placing surface 08.

The placing surface 08 in connection with the transfer device 09 that is independent of the transplacing device 10 for transferring articles 02 from the first conveyer 03 into outer packagings 05 having been transferred onto the placing surface 08 results in an increase in performance with regard to the pacing that is achievable based on an apparatus without placing surface 08 formed by a section 62, preferably by a start section 60, of the third conveyer 06.

The higher pacing is achieved, because, by means of the placing surface 08 in connection with the transfer device 09 that is independent of the transplacing device 10, articles 02 supplied by means of the first conveyer 03 can be seized by the transplacing device 10 in a first cycle, and the transplacing device 10 can begin with transferring the seized articles 02 by starting a movement of the seized articles 02 from the first conveyer 03 to the placing surface 08 while outer packagings 05 that are still empty are simultaneously transferred, for instance, pushed over, from a section of the second conveyer 04, preferably from an end section 33 limited in transport direction as indicated by arrows 41 of the second conveyer 04 by, for instance, an end stop, to the placing surface 08 formed by a section, preferably by a start section 60 of the third conveyer 06 and arranged between the first conveyer 03 and the second conveyer 04, and in a second cycle new, empty outer packagings 05 can be supplied to the end section 33 of the second conveyer 04 while the transferring of the articles 02 having been seized in the first cycle is simultaneously completed in the second cycle by placing articles 02 into the outer packagings 05 staged on the placing surface 08.

In the second cycle, the transferring of the articles 02 seized in the first cycle is ended by articles 02 seized by the transplacing device 10 being placed into empty outer packagings 05 having been transferred, for instance, pushed over, onto the placing surface 08 in the first cycle, and by a return of the transplacing device 10 from the placing surface 08 to the first conveyer 03 at least being started in order to again seize and transfer articles 02 supplied by the first conveyer 03.

In a third cycle, the return of the transplacing device 10 from the placing surface 08 to the first conveyer 03 is finally completed. Furthermore, after the transplacing device 10 has left the collision area with the at least one outer packaging item 07 standing on the placing surface 08, the outer packaging item 07 consisting of at least one outer packaging 05, with articles 02 placed therein, standing on the placing surface 08, the discharge from the placing surface 08 of the at least one outer packaging item 07 is carried out in the third cycle by operating the third conveyer 06 for at least as long until the at least one outer packaging item 07 located on the placing surface 08 and consisting of at least one outer packaging 05 having previously been provided with articles 02 on the placing surface 08 has left the placing surface 08.

Subsequent to the third cycle follows the cyclically recurring first cycle, followed by a second cycle.

The apparatus 01 allows carrying out a method for handling articles 02, which method preferentially provides that articles 02 are placed into outer packagings 05 staged on a placing surface 08, which articles 02 are supplied in a transport direction indicated by arrows 31 in one or in a plurality of article flows of articles 02 lined up one after the other uninterruptedly and/or with gaps between them and/or grouped, which outer packagings 05 themselves in turn are supplied independently of the articles 02 by means of the second conveyer 04 in a transport direction indicated by arrows 41 and are transferred, as indicated by arrows 91, onto the placing surface 08 individually or groupwise transversely to the transport direction indicated by arrows 41 and, after the articles 02 have been placed therein as indicated by arrows 101, they are discharged transversely to the transport direction indicated by arrows 31—now as outer packaging items 07 of outer packagings 05 provided with articles 02 placed therein—, independently of the supply of articles 02 and independently of the supply of outer packagings 05, by means of the third conveyer 06 in a transport direction indicated by arrows 61 of the third conveyer 06 in parallel to the direction of the transport direction indicated by arrows 31 of the first conveyer 03 and/or to the direction of the transport direction indicated by arrows 41 of the second conveyer 04 and/or opposite to the transport direction indicated by arrows 31 of the first conveyer 03 and/or to the transport direction indicated by arrows 41 of the second conveyer 04.

Both the apparatus 01 and the method can be further developed as explained in the following.

Preferentially, at least the second conveyer 04 and the third conveyer 06 are arranged in parallel to each other at least in the area of the portion 42 of the second conveyer 04, which portion 42 abuts on the placing surface 08, and of the section 62 of the third conveyer 06, which section 62 forms the placing surface 08, or at least the second conveyer 04 and the third conveyer 06 run in parallel to each other at least in the area of the portion 42 of the second conveyer 04, which portion 42 abuts on the placing surface 08, and of the section 62 of the third conveyer 06, which section 62 forms the placing surface 08.

In addition, the first conveyer 03 and the second conveyer 04 as well as the third conveyer 06 can be arranged in parallel to each other or run in parallel to each other at least in the area of the portion 32 of the first conveyer 03, which portion 32 abuts on the placing surface 08, and of the portion 42 of the second conveyer 04, which portion 42 abuts on the placing surface 08 as well as of the section 62 of the third conveyer 06, which section 62 forms the placing surface 08.

Preferably, the first conveyer 03 and the second conveyer 04 are arranged in parallel to each other along the placing surface 08, at least in the area of their portions 32, 42 abutting on the placing surface 08, and in parallel to the section 62 of the third conveyer 06, which section 62 forms the placing surface 08. In the arrangement in parallel to each other, the transport directions indicated by arrows 31, 41, 61 of the conveyers 03, 04, 06 run in parallel to each other at least in the area of their portions 32, 42 abutting on the placing surface 08 and in parallel to the section 62 of the third conveyer 06, which section 62 forms the placing surface 08.

In the arrangement in parallel to each other, the transport directions indicated by arrows 31, 41, 61 of the conveyers 03, 04, 06 run in parallel to each other at least in the area 82 located between the arrows 81 of their portions 32, 42 abutting on the placing surface 08, or, as the case may be, in the area of the section 62 forming the placing surface 08. This applies to transport directions of all conveyers 03, 04, 06 running in the same direction as well as to transport directions of at least two conveyers 03, 04, 06 running in opposite directions.

Due to the parallel arrangement, the portions 32, 42 and the section 62 overlap each other in the area located between the arrows 81.

The parallely arranged portions 32, 42 of the conveyers 03, 04 and the section 62 of the conveyer 06 can overlap one another by a distance indicated by the double arrow 83 of the length of at least two, preferably at least three outer packagings 05 staged on the placing surface 08.

In this way, two or more outer packagings 05 can be simultaneously transferred from the second conveyer 04 onto the placing surface 08 and two or more outer packaging items 07 can be simultaneously transferred from the placing surface 08 to the third conveyer 06, and likewise articles 02 can be simultaneously placed into the plurality of outer packagings 05 that are thus staged on the placing surface 08. The pacing can thus be further increased.

The transfer indicated by arrows 91 from the second conveyer 04 to the placing surface 08 can be carried out by pushing over supplied outer packagings 05.

The transferring as indicated by arrows 101 can be carried out by gripping the articles 02, or by pushing the gripped articles 02 over the edge of the first conveyer 03, or by slightly lifting the gripped articles 02 from the first conveyer 03 as well as lowering them into the outer packagings 05 staged on the placing surface 08.

The direction of the transfer of outer packagings 05, termed for short transfer direction, indicated by arrows 91, and being carried out by the transfer device 09 for transferring empty outer packagings 05 from the second conveyer 04 to the placing surface 08, runs, in a horizontal direction, preferably transversely, preferentially orthogonal to the transport direction indicated by arrows 41 of the second conveyer 04.

If the transport directions indicated by arrows 41, 61 of the second conveyer 04 and of the third conveyer 06 run in parallel to each other in the area 82 located between the arrows 81, the transfer direction indicated by arrows 91 of the transfer device 09 for transferring empty packagings 05 thus runs, in a horizontal direction, preferably transversely, preferentially orthogonal to the transport directions indicated by arrows 41 and 61 of both the second conveyer 04 and the third conveyer 06 in the transfer from the second conveyer 04 to the placing surface 08 formed by a section 62, preferably by a start section 60, of the third conveyer 06.

By the transversal and preferably orthogonal horizontal transfer direction, which is indicated by arrows 91, in relation to the transport directions indicated by arrows 41 and 61 of the second conveyer 04 and the third conveyer 06, one or more of empty outer packagings 05 can be respectively simultaneously transferred from the second conveyer 41 to the placing surface 08, whereby articles 02 can be simultaneously placed into a plurality of outer packagings 05 that have been put down on the placing surface 08. The pacing can thus be significantly increased.

The transfer device 09 for transferring empty outer packagings 05 from the second conveyer 04 onto the placing surface 08 can comprise at least one slider.

The second conveyer 04 and the placing surface 08 formed by a section 62, preferably a start section 60, of the third conveyer 06 are preferentially located on a common, first level.

The first conveyer 03 is preferably located on a higher, second level.

A vertical stroke of the transplacing device 10, which vertical stroke is necessary for placing articles 02 into outer packagings 05, can thus be reduced to the essential, whereby the pacing can be further increased.

The second level can be located above the first level by at least the height of an outer packaging 05, which is initially open and to be closed after placing the articles 02 therein, as the case may be.

In the instance of flaps for closing that protrude to the top from an outer packaging 05 designed as a closable cardboard packaging, the second level is preferentially located accordingly higher, by the height of the flaps protruding above the first level, than in the instance of the outer packagings 05 being closed, for instance, with a separately provided lid.

The closing of the outer packaging items 07, can be carried out while still on the placing surface 08, for instance, together with or subsequent to placing the articles 02 into the outer packagings 05, or in a separate treatment step, for instance, subsequent to or in the further course of the third conveyer 06 of the apparatus 01 for handling articles 02.

For instance, the outer packaging items 07, can be closed with lids in the further course of the third conveyer 06.

Prior to placing the articles 02 into outer packagings 05 having been transferred onto the placing surface 08, compartments 13, also termed so-called baskets, can be inserted into the outer packagings 05, which compartments 13 assign fixed positions to the articles 02 within the outer packagings 05 and thus protect them, during the further transport of the outer packagings 05 with articles 02 placed therein until the articles 02 are withdrawn and consumed, from colliding with each other and rubbing against each other, which otherwise would lead to a negative impression of the quality by scuffing, for instance, of information applied onto the articles 02 in the form of labels, for example, and/or by the articles 02 damaging each other.

The compartments 13 can already have been or be inserted into the outer packagings 05 prior to the transfer of the outer packagings 05 to the placing surface 08, or the compartments 13 can be inserted into the outer packagings 05 prior to or together with or after the articles 02 being placed into the outer packagings 05.

The compartments 13 can be staged, for instance, by a separate device 14, for instance, a facility as described in the following text for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings, which facility can simultaneously expand and erect a plurality of compartments 13, for instance.

The subsequent introduction of compartments 13, in particular with lightweight articles 02 that are shiftable with little effort within the outer packagings 05, has the advantage of a simplified placing of the articles 02 in the outer packagings 05, along with a reduced controlling effort for the transplacing device 10, because articles 02 with a shape, for example, tapering conically or in a similar manner toward their oppositely located contact surfaces, such as beverage bottles with a bottle neck widening at least sectionwise from the top downward, can be horizontally shifted within the outer packagings 05 by the compartments 13 when these are inserted.

The compartments 13 can be introduced into the outer packagings 05, for instance, while still on the second conveyer 04, for instance, within an end section 33 of the second conveyer 03, which end section 33 is situated in an area 82 located between the arrows 91, or they can be introduced into the outer packagings 05, for instance, already together with or subsequent to erecting these, or they can already be integrated into an according cardboard packaging, wherein the compartments 13 unfold within the outer packaging 05 with the cardboard packaging being erected.

In connection with introducing compartments 13 prior to or after placing articles 02 into the outer packagings 05, a separate introduction surface can alternatively be provided between the second conveyer 04 and the placing surface 08 in the instance of the introduction of compartments 13 prior to placing the articles 02.

In this context, an additional device can be provided for the transfer of outer packagings 05 provided with compartments 13 from the introduction surface to the placing surface 08, which additional device can be part of a transfer device 09 or be comprised by it.

In the further course of the third conveyer 06 of the apparatus 01 for handling articles 02, a stacking station can be provided, where, for instance, outer packaging items 07 taking the form of closed outer packagings 05 with articles 02 placed therein are grouped into stack layers and stacked onto a stack, which is then discharged in order to make room for stacking up a new stack after reaching a specified stacking height according to a specified number of stack layers stacked on top of each other at the stacking station.

The articles 02 supplied by means of the first conveyer 03 are preferentially already sorted into article groups 21 to be respectively placed into an outer packaging 05. The articles 02 supplied by means of the first conveyer 03 can abut on each other or they can be supplied lined up one after the other with gaps between them. The articles 02 supplied by means of the first conveyer 03 can be supplied in one row or in a plurality of rows running in parallel. For this purpose, the articles 02 can be transferred to the first conveyer 03 via a suitable infeed, and be guided in one or in a plurality of lanes oriented in parallel to each other after the transfer to the first conveyer 03.

The articles 02 supplied by means of the first conveyer 03 accordingly form a single- or multiple-row article flow of articles 02 lined up one after the other uninterruptedly and/or with gaps between them.

Before the articles 02 are subsequently placed into the outer packagings 05 by means of the apparatus 01 for handling articles 02, the said articles 02 can have been previously treated along an infeed to the first conveyer 03, for instance, by producing a container and/or cleaning an outer and/or inner surface and/or cooling and/or filling and/or closing, in order to name only a few examples of treating articles 02 without claim to completeness of the list, and/or the articles 02 can have been previously handled along an infeed to the first conveyer 03, for instance, by separating a number of articles 02 from one or more of article flows of articles 02 being transported immediately following each other and/or grouping a number of articles 02 into article groups 21 and/or compiling and assembling a number of articles 02 into bundles, in order to name only a few examples of handling articles 02 without claim to completeness.

The conveyers 03, 04, 06 preferentially comprise at least one horizontal conveyor device, such as, for instance, a belt conveyor and/or a roller conveyor.

The outer packagings 05 can preferentially be cardboard packagings, for instance, in the form of cardboard boxes with or without compartments 13 arranged or arrangeable therein for separating and/or keeping apart individual articles 02 from each other.

It is obvious that the invention can be realized by an apparatus 01 for handling articles 02 with:

a first conveyer 03 supplying articles 02 in a first transport direction indicated by arrows 31,

a second conveyer 04 supplying outer packagings 05 in a second transport direction indicated by arrows 41 and preferentially directed in parallel to and running in the same direction as or opposite to the first transport direction indicated by arrows 31,

a third conveyer 06 discharging outer packaging items 07, in a third transport direction indicated by an arrow 61 and preferentially directed in parallel to and running in the same direction as or opposite to the first transport direction indicated by arrows 31 and to the second transport direction indicated by arrows 41,

a placing surface 08 formed by a section 62, preferably by a start section 60, of the third conveyer 06 and arranged between the first conveyer 03 and the second conveyer 04,

a transfer device 09 for the transfer indicated by arrows 91 of supplied outer packagings 05 from the second conveyer 04 to the placing surface 08, and

a transplacing device 10 for the transferring indicated by arrows 101 of articles 02 from the first conveyer 03 into outer packagings 05 having been transferred onto the placing surface 08.

It is important to emphasize that the apparatus 01 according to the invention and the method according to the invention for handling articles 02 allow a higher pacing by a placing surface formed by a section of a third conveyer, which placing surface serves for the discharge of outer packaging items, in contrast to a parallel arrangement of an article infeed formed by a first conveyer and staging articles, and an outer packaging infeed and outer packaging outfeed formed by a second conveyer and staging outer packagings and simultaneously discharging outer packaging items formed by outer packagings having been provided with articles. Wear and effort for controlling are moreover considerably reduced, because the apparatus 01 according to the invention and the method according to the invention for handling articles 02 allow a significantly more constant article infeed and outer packaging infeed as compared to the prior art. The reduced effort for controlling results, among others, therefrom that, in the prior art, where articles are placed into outer packagings on a second conveyer staging the outer packagings by a first conveyer staging the articles, both articles and outer packagings have to be supplied precisely positioned and coordinated with one another in their respective infeeds. A placing surface arranged intermediately according to the invention, by contrast, provides a precise position of the outer packagings, into which the articles can them be placed with a reduced effort for controlling. By the placing surface according to the invention being formed by a third conveyer serving for the discharge of outer packaging items, a simplification of the material flow is moreover achieved, where only the third conveyer has to be operated intermittently.

It is also important to emphasize that by a quick upwardly moving away of the transplacing device 10, the transplacing device 10 can already again seize articles 02 of the infeed formed by the first conveyer 03 while the third conveyer 06 is removing the outer packaging items 07 from the placing surface 08. In addition, the second conveyer 04 can already introduce further outer packagings 05 into the area 82 located between the arrows 81 while outer packagings 05 having been previously transferred onto the placing surface 08 are provided with articles 02 having been removed from the infeed. The first conveyer 03 can also already introduce further articles 02 into the area 82 located between the arrows 81 while outer packagings 05 having been previously transferred onto the placing surface 08 are provided with articles 02 having been removed from the infeed and outer packaging items 07 are being removed by operation of the third conveyer 06 from the placing surface located in the area 82. In summary, a significantly increased pacing is thus possible in comparison to a previously described device with only two parallely arranged conveyer, one of them for the article infeed and one of them both for staging outer packagings and for discharging outer packaging items.

As already indicated, the outer packagings 05 and/or compartments 13, which have been supplied to the described apparatus for handling articles and/or to the described method for handling articles, can be staged by means of a facility being described in the following for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings, which facility carries out a method described subsequently to the facility for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings.

In the instance of compartments and/or outer packagings arranged in a standing position, the access openings through which articles can be introduced into the compartments and/or outer packagings are in a horizontal plane.

The facility has a cardboard packaging supply comprising at least one stack of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged lying on top of each other.

The cardboard packagings consist of a plurality of cardboard packaging walls interconnected with each other, for instance, by bending edges and/or adhesive joints and/or slot-in connections, which cardboard packaging walls can be cut out and/or punched out from sheet-formed material, for example. In a collapsed state at least two cardboard packaging walls connected with each other form a top and a bottom flat side, respectively, of a flatly collapsed cardboard packaging.

The facility further has an erecting device arranged next to the cardboard packaging supply.

The facility moreover has a gripping device for simultaneously seizing one respective top cardboard packaging after the other from each stack of the cardboard packaging supply of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged on top of each other.

The number of stacks of the cardboard packaging supply of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged lying one on top of each other preferentially corresponds to the number of cardboard packagings respectively simultaneously seizable or seized, as the case may be, by the gripping device.

Per each cardboard packaging simultaneously seized by the gripping device, the gripping device has at least one tool with which a cardboard packaging lying topmost on a stack of the cardboard packaging supply can be seized and lifted at a cardboard packaging wall of its top flat side.

In order to be able to move the at least one tool of the gripping device horizontally between the cardboard packaging supply and the erecting device, and preferentially, for bridging height differences and/or for expanding cardboard packagings to compartments and/or outer packagings, also vertically in space, the gripping device moreover has at least one manipulator with a manipulator head that is at least horizontally movable along a horizontal axis and preferentially also vertically movable along a vertical axis, at which manipulator head the at least one tool of the gripping device is arranged.

The erecting device and the cardboard packaging supply are arranged next to each other in the direction of the horizontal axis.

Preferentially, the erecting device as well as the surface of the cardboard packaging supply formed by the topmost cardboard packaging of the at least one stack of cardboard packagings are located at the same level, at least in a starting position.

Particularly preferentially, the surface of the cardboard packaging supply formed by the topmost cardboard packaging of the at least one stack of cardboard packagings is located at a level that is higher by at least the height of a lying, expanded set of compartments and/or of a lying, expanded outer packaging than a level of the erecting device formed by the at least one tool of the erecting device in the horizontal position of its at least one carrier. In this way, a vertical stroke of the manipulator head in a return movement from the erecting device to the cardboard packaging supply, which is required for seizing the next cardboard packagings after expanding a cardboard packaging to a lying set of compartments and/or to an outer packaging, is not needed, thus increasing the achievable pacing.

The at least one tool of the gripping device arranged at the at least one manipulator head is thus horizontally movable back and forth between the cardboard packaging supply and the erecting device, which is arranged next to the cardboard packaging supply as seen in the direction of a horizontal axis, as well as being, preferentially, liftable and lowerable. The at least one manipulator can be, for instance, a multi-axis robot arm, for example with six axes, or a gantry or a tripod or quadropod, which is laterally movable back and forth along a horizontal axis as well as, preferably, also being liftable and lowerable along a vertical axis, to name but a few conceivable manipulators.

The erecting device has at least one carrier, which is pivotable back and forth, for instance, by swinging down and back up again, for instance, about a pivoting axis running orthogonal to the horizontal axis and orthogonal to the vertical axis, from a horizontal position into a vertical position and vice versa.

The erecting device has at least one tool arranged at its at least one carrier per each cardboard packaging that is simultaneously seizable or seized, as the case may be, by means of the gripping device, with which tool, in its or, as the case may be, in their horizontal position, at least one cardboard packaging having been brought onto the erecting device by means of the gripping device can be seized and held at a cardboard packaging wall of its bottom flat side, and, after expanding the cardboard packagings by increasing the distance between the tools of the gripping device and the erecting device along the vertical axis, for instance, by vertically lifting the tool of the gripper device arranged at the manipulator head, which is in any event preferentially vertically movable, the lying, expanded compartments and/or outer packagings, which are still being held by the at least one tool of the erecting device, are erected to a standing position along with the subsequent disengaging of only the at least one tool of the gripper device by swinging down the carrier.

At its at least one carrier, the erecting device can have a device designed as a folding flap, for example, which holds in form compartments and/or outer packagings, which are expanded and erected, at least until after the pivoting of the at least one carrier of the erecting device about its horizontal pivoting axis running, for instance, orthogonal to the horizontal axis and orthogonal to the vertical axis from a horizontal position into a vertical position, and, as the case may be, prevents them from slipping off the carrier when the at least one tool of the erecting device releases a set of compartments and/or an outer packaging held by it until the end of the expanding.

If the erecting device is designed to be vertically movable, it is possible to omit a vertically movable manipulator head, by it only horizontally transferring cardboard packagings from the cardboard packaging supply to the erecting device, and the erecting device increasing the distance between its tools and the tools of the gripping device for expanding the cardboard packagings to lying compartments and/or outer packagings by moving downward.

In summary, the erecting device together with the gripping device at the same time forms an expanding device, which, by increasing the distance between a cardboard packaging wall of a top flat side of a flatly collapsed cardboard packaging being held by at least one tool of the gripping device and a cardboard packaging wall of a bottom flat side of a flatly collapsed cardboard packaging being held by at least one tool of the erecting device, expands these to a lying set of compartments and/or to an outer packaging.

In the instance of compartments and/or outer packagings arranged in a lying position, the access openings through which articles can be introduced into the compartments and/or outer packagings are, other than those of compartments and/or outer packagings that are arranged in a standing position, not in a horizontal, but rather in a vertical plane.

The facility can furthermore comprise a control device, which at least:

controls the at least one manipulator of the gripping device such that it carries out a cyclical movement path, in the course of which the manipulator lowers the at least one tool onto a cardboard packaging wall of the top flat side of a cardboard packaging lying topmost on at least one stack of the cardboard packaging supply, lifts it up again, traverses to the erecting device, lowers it onto the erecting device and lifts it back up again and finally traverses over the cardboard packaging supply again,

controls the at least one tool of the gripping device such that it, after being lowered, seizes and holds a cardboard packaging wall of the top flat side of a cardboard packaging lying topmost on at least one stack of the cardboard packaging supply until the tool of the gripping device, in the course of the cyclical movement path, has been lifted back up again from the erecting device for at least so far that the cardboard packaging is expanded to a set of compartments and/or to an outer packaging,

controls the at least one carrier of the erecting device such that it carries out a cyclical pivoting movement path, in the course of which it is pivoted about its pivoting axis by 90 degrees from the horizontal to the vertical and back again, wherein the carrier takes up a horizontal position at the latest when the at least one manipulator, during its course of movement, lowers or has lowered the at least one tool of the gripping device onto the erecting device and maintains the horizontal position for as long as until the tool of the gripping device, in the course of the cyclical movement path of the manipulator, has been lifted back up again from the erecting device for at least so far that the cardboard packaging is expanded to a set of compartments and/or to an outer packaging, in order to hereafter take up a vertical position by swinging down and/or pivoting about its pivoting axis, and

controls the at least one tool of the erecting device such that, after lowering the at least one manipulator, the tool seizes a cardboard packaging wall of the bottom flat side of the at least one cardboard packaging being held by the at least one tool of the gripping device and holds it at least for as long as until the cardboard packaging, which is expanded to a set of compartments and/or to an outer packaging, has been erected and is available for its further use by swinging down and/or pivoting the at least one carrier of the erecting device by 90 degrees about its pivoting axis from its horizontal position to its vertical position.

If the erecting device is equipped with a device designed as folding flap at its at least one carrier, which folding flap holds in form compartments and/or outer packagings, which are expanded and erected, at least until after the pivoting of the at least one carrier of the erecting device about its horizontal pivoting axis running, for instance, orthogonal to the horizontal axis and orthogonal to the vertical axis from a horizontal position into a vertical position, and, as the case may be, prevents them from slipping off the carrier when the at least one tool of the erecting device releases a set of compartments and/or an outer packaging held by it until the end of the expanding, then the control device can additionally control this folding flap in such a manner that it is flipped open, at the latest, at the end of the expanding process and in the beginning of the pivoting of the carrier from its horizontal into the vertical position such that, in end of the erecting process, the folding flap holds in form expanded and erected compartments and/or outer packagings and, supports them, as the case may be, from below, for instance, preferably even after the release of the tool of the erecting device for as long as until the expanded and erected compartments and/or outer packagings are supplied for their further use. The control device can subsequently cause the folding flap to return to its starting position in a folded-in state. Alternatively or additionally, the folding out or folding in of at least the part of the folding flap preventing a slipping off can be carried out gravity-supported and/or gravity-controlled, as the case may be.

In dependence on the configuration of the cardboard packagings and of the compartments and/or outer packagings expandable therefrom, the control device can cause the manipulator to carry out a horizontal movement running in parallel and/or orthogonal to the horizontal axis at the same time while the tool of the gripping device is lifted, at the end of which horizontal movement the cardboard packaging wall of the top flat side of a cardboard packaging having been seized by a tool of the gripping device and the cardboard packaging wall of the bottom flat side of a cardboard packaging having been seized by a tool of the erecting device are arranged superposed upon each other as seen from a top view in a horizontal direction, corresponding to two opposite walls of an expanded set of compartments and/or an outer packaging.

Preferably, however, the cardboard packagings are configured such that they can be expanded by a mere increase of distance between the tools of the gripping device and the erecting device. This is possible, for instance, by way of an accordion-like structure with an even number of cardboard packaging walls connecting the cardboard packaging walls being held by the tools at respectively one of their narrow sides with each other.

In dependence on the design of the cardboard packaging, the lifting following the lowering onto the erecting device can thus be carried out exclusively in a vertical direction.

In order to achieve an as high as possible pacing, the control device can cause combined movements of the manipulator in a horizontal and a vertical direction before and after the erecting of cardboard packagings to compartments and/or outer packagings.

As at least one tool per each simultaneously seized cardboard packaging, the gripping device has at least one downwardly directed suction cup, which, by impingement with a vacuum, is able to hold a cardboard packaging lying respectively topmost on a stack of the cardboard packaging supply at one of the cardboard packaging walls of its top flat side by means of the vacuum.

A suction cup has a downwardly open sleeve of an elastic, airtight material as well as a connection leading upward and away from the sleeve for a vacuum source, such as, for instance, a vacuum pump or a negative pressure pump, or a vacuum accumulator connected with a vacuum pump or a negative pressure pump. Preferably, a control opening and closing valve is arranged between each suction cup assigned to a cardboard packaging and the vacuum source. The vacuum source communicates with the suction cup when the valve is opened. In the instance of the downwardly open sleeve not being covered, air flows through the suction cup to the vacuum source, which, strictly speaking, thus represents a drain for the air that is under ambient pressure. In the instance of the downwardly open sleeve being blocked by a cardboard packaging wall, a vacuum forms in the suction cup, and the cardboard packaging wall together with the associated cardboard packaging are held.

Preferably, the gripping device has at least four downwardly directed suction cups as tool per each simultaneously seized cardboard packaging, which suction cups can hold a cardboard packaging lying respectively topmost on a stack in the area of the corners of one of the cardboard packaging walls of its top flat side by means of the vacuum. In comparison to only one suction cup per each simultaneously seized cardboard packaging, this has the advantage of greater redundancy and, at the same time, a greater holding force, which, as explained above, is required for expanding the folded cardboard packagings.

The at least one suction cup of the gripping device per stack of the cardboard packaging supply is arranged at the manipulator, whereby the suction cup can be lowered onto the cardboard packaging supply, lifted back up again with a suction-held cardboard packaging, be laterally traversed to the erecting device and lowered onto it and lifted back up again as well as traversed back to the cardboard packaging supply after the release of the cardboard packaging, which has then been expanded to a set of compartments and/or to an outer packaging.

Preferably, this at least one tool of the erecting device is also one or more of suction cups, for instance.

The cardboard packaging supply can comprise an uprightly standing magazine accommodating one or more of stacks, which magazine is accessible from its top side for removing cardboard packagings. If a plurality of stacks are accommodated in the magazine, they are preferentially at least partly separated by magazine partition walls and/or accommodated in the magazine spaced apart such as will exclude any contact of the individual cardboard packagings of adjacent stacks in the magazine. In this way, the topmost cardboard packagings simultaneously removed from a plurality of stacks of the cardboard packaging supply are prevented from getting caught, thus increasing the operating safety of the facility.

Preferably, the cardboard packaging supply has two or more stacks of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged lying stacked on top of each other, which stacks are adjacent next to each other as seen in a horizontal direction in parallel to the pivoting axis of the at least one carrier of the erecting device.

Two or more stacks of the cardboard packaging supply of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged lying stacked on top of each other, which stacks are adjacent next to each other as seen in a horizontal direction in parallel to the pivoting axis of the at least one carrier of the erecting device, can be arranged offset from one another in a horizontal direction orthogonal to the pivoting axis of the at least one carrier of the erecting device, or they can be aligned with each other as seen in parallel to the pivoting axis of the at least one carrier of the erecting device.

Alternatively or additionally, stacks of the cardboard packaging supply of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged lying stacked on top of each other, which stacks are adjacent next to each other as seen in a horizontal direction in parallel to the pivoting axis of the at least one carrier of the erecting device, can be twisted relative to each other by 90 degrees or 180 degrees or 270 degrees or they can be arranged mirror-invertedly corresponding to a mirroring at a mirror axis running orthogonal to the pivoting axis of the at least one carrier of the erecting device between two adjacent stacks or at a mirror point located between the adjacent stacks.

Preferentially, the erecting device has at least two carriers, which are pivotable from a horizontal position to a vertical position and vice versa respectively about an own pivoting axis. The pivoting axes of the carriers in this instance run in parallel. As seen in a horizontal direction orthogonal to the pivoting axes, the cardboard packaging supply has a number of adjacent stacks of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged lying on top of each other, their number corresponding to the number of carriers that are respectively pivotable about their own pivoting axes.

Particularly preferentially, the erecting device has two carriers, which are pivotable in opposite pivoting directions from a horizontal position to a vertical position and vice versa respectively about an own pivoting axis. The pivoting axes of the carriers run in parallel in this instance, too. As seen in a horizontal direction orthogonal to the pivoting axes, the cardboard packaging supply has two adjacent stacks of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged lying on top of each other. The lying, stacked cardboard packagings of a first stack of the two stacks, which are adjacent next to each other as seen in a horizontal direction orthogonal to the pivoting axes, here are preferably stacked, as seen in relation to a mirror axis running in parallel to the pivoting axes between the two stacks, mirror-invertedly with respect to cardboard packagings, which are also stacked lying, of a second stack of the two stacks, which are adjacent as seen in a horizontal direction orthogonal to the pivoting axes.

Both for the same and for opposite pivoting directions of two or a plurality of carriers of the erecting device about their respectively own pivoting axes can the stacks of the cardboard packaging supply of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings, which are adjacent as seen in a horizontal direction orthogonal to the pivoting axes, be arranged to be aligned with each other or offset from each other in relation to a horizontal axis running orthogonal to the pivoting axes. In this way, the arrangement of the stacks in the cardboard packaging supply can be adapted to the folding of the cardboard packagings such that, after the expanding and erecting of cardboard packagings from stacks correspondingly adjacent to each other in the cardboard packaging supply to compartments and/or outer packagings, the cardboard packagings are arranged, for instance, aligned with each other or offset from each other in relation to a horizontal axis running orthogonal to the pivoting axes.

Similarly as already described for stacks of the cardboard packaging supply arranged adjacent next to each other as seen along the pivoting axes, it is generally also conceivable here to have stacks of the cardboard packaging supply of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged lying stacked on top of each other, which stacks are adjacent next to each other and can be twisted relative to each other by 90 degrees or 180 degrees or 270 degrees or can be arranged mirror-invertedly corresponding to a mirroring at a mirror axis running orthogonal to the pivoting axis of the at least one carrier of the erecting device between two adjacent stacks or at a mirror point located between the adjacent stacks.

If the erecting ends in an offset arrangement and if an aligned arrangement is required for the further handling, it is alternatively conceivable to arrange the carriers of the erecting device movably in parallel to their pivoting axes relative to each other, in order to transfer expanded compartments and/or outer packagings that were erected by means of different carriers of the erecting device into an arrangement aligned with each other.

Each or only one of the carriers of the erecting device can be movably arranged in a horizontal direction relative to each other and/or together with each other such that they can be moved apart from each other during their preferably simultaneous pivoting about their pivoting axes in order to prevent a clashing of expanded compartments and/or outer packagings during the pivoting and/or such that they can be moved toward each other and/or in parallel to each other after reaching the vertical position in order to achieve a grouping of the expanded and erected compartments and/or outer packagings. An adaptation to compartments and/or outer packagings with different external dimensions is thus moreover possible.

By a horizontal movability of the carrier or carriers of the erecting device orthogonal to its or their pivoting axes, a stripping of the expanded and erected compartments and/or outer packagings is further possible, which compartments and/or outer packagings, after the disengaging of the tools of the erecting device, remain standing on devices arranged at the carriers of the erecting device, designed, for instance, as a folding flap for each carrier, which devices prevent expanded compartments and/or outer packagings being erected after the pivoting of the carriers of the erecting device about their horizontal pivoting axes running, for instance, orthogonal to the horizontal axis and orthogonal to the vertical axis from a horizontal position into a vertical position, from slipping off the carrier when tools of the erecting device release compartments and/or outer packagings being held by them at least until the end of the expanding.

The facility can comprise a transfer device, which receives expanded and erected compartments and/or outer packagings from the erecting device, preferentially from the vertical position of the carrier of the erecting device, and supplies them to their further use, for instance, by subsequent inserting of expanded and erected compartments into outer packagings staged elsewhere and/or by the placing of articles into compartments and/or outer packagings.

Arranged at a manipulator, the transfer device can comprise a tool, which receives expanded and erected compartments and/or outer packagings from the erecting device and discharges them by way of a vertical and/or horizontal movement of the manipulator and transfers them to, for instance, a second conveyer of a previously described apparatus for handling articles.

Alternatively, the compartments and/or outer packagings, which are erected to a standing position after the pivoting of the at least one carrier of the erecting device, can also be released by simply disengaging the at least one tool of the erecting device and thus be transferred, for instance, to a horizontal conveyor passing immediately below the erecting device, the horizontal conveyor being formed, for instance, by a second conveyer of a previously described apparatus for handling articles. In this instance, the vertical distance between such a horizontal conveyor and the erecting device can be adjusted such that the compartments and/or outer packagings, which are erected to a standing position after the pivoting of the at least one carrier from its horizontal position to its vertical position, take up an as small as possible distance to the surface of the horizontal conveyor, for instance, grazing the surface. Furthermore conceivable is a set down movement of the erecting device in a vertical direction prior to the release.

The at least one tool of the transfer device can comprise at least one suction cup.

A method for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings, which method can be carried out by a previously described facility, provides to hold the topmost cardboard packaging, coming from above, at a cardboard packaging wall of its top flat side from a stack of flatly collapsed cardboard packagings arranged on top of each other of a supply of cardboard packagings, and to remove it from the stack.

The method for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings subsequently provides to also hold the cardboard packaging, which is being held at a cardboard packaging wall of its top flat side, at a cardboard packaging wall of its bottom flat side from below, as well, and to increase the vertical distance between the cardboard packaging wall, at which the cardboard packaging is being held at its top flat side, and the cardboard packaging wall, at which the cardboard packaging is being held at its bottom flat side, by oppositely pulling so far until the cardboard packaging has been expanded to a lying set of compartments and/or to a lying outer packaging.

The method for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings then provides to release the expanded set of compartments and/or the outer packaging at its cardboard packaging wall that was previously assigned to the top flat side of the cardboard packaging.

Finally, the method for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings provides to tilt the lying, expanded set of compartments and/or the outer packaging still being held at its cardboard packaging wall that was previously assigned to the bottom flat side of the cardboard packaging about a horizontal pivoting axis and to subsequently also release the expanded and now erected set of compartments and/or the outer packaging at its cardboard packaging wall that was previously assigned to the bottom flat side of the cardboard packaging.

Preferably, the method for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings provides to simultaneously expand and erect a plurality of cardboard packagings to compartments and/or outer packagings in the described manner.

Here, respectively two cardboard packagings can form a pair of cardboard packagings to be simultaneously expanded and erected to compartments and/or outer packagings, which, after having been expanded to lying compartments and/or outer packagings, are erected to standing compartments and/or outer packagings in the same or the opposite pivoting direction about respectively own horizontal pivoting axes running in parallel.

The cardboard packagings of a pair of cardboard packagings to be simultaneously expanded and erected to compartments and/or outer packagings can be arranged aligned or offset to each other prior to the expanding. Alternatively or additionally, the cardboard packagings of a pair of cardboard packagings to be simultaneously expanded and erected to compartments and/or outer packagings can be arranged twisted relative to each other by 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees, for example, and/or mirror-invertedly to a mirror axis or a mirror point prior to the expanding.

The compartments and/or outer packagings simultaneously expanded and erected from a pair of cardboard packagings can be arranged aligned or offset to each other after the expanding. Alternatively or additionally, the compartments and/or outer packagings simultaneously expanded and erected from a pair of cardboard packagings can be arranged twisted relative to each other by 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees, for example, and/or mirror-invertedly to a mirror axis or a mirror point after the expanding.

A plurality of cardboard packagings or pairs of cardboard packagings can be simultaneously expanded next to each other, as seen in a direction in parallel to the pivoting axis or axes, to lying compartments and/or outer packagings and subsequently be erected to standing compartments and/or outer packagings.

It is obvious that the facility and/or the method for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings can be realized by an erecting of compartments and/or outer packagings expanded from previously lying cardboard packagings, by continuing, even after releasing their cardboard packaging walls previously assigned to the top flat sides of the cardboard packagings, to hold the expanded compartments and/or outer packagings at their cardboard packaging walls previously assigned to the bottom flat sides of the cardboard packagings, and subsequently pivoting them by 90 degrees about a horizontal pivoting axis of an erecting device still holding the compartments and/or outer packagings at their cardboard packaging walls previously assigned to the bottom flat sides of the cardboard packagings.

Moreover, the facility can alternatively or additionally have individual or a combination of a plurality of features previously described in connection with the method for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings, as well as the method for expanding and erecting collapsed or folded cardboard packagings to standing compartments and/or outer packagings can alternatively or additionally have individual or a combination of a plurality of features previously described in connection with the facility.

The invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that numerous changes and modifications can be made to the preferred embodiments of the invention and that such changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is, therefore, intended that the appended claims cover all such equivalent variations as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.

LIST OF REFERENCE CHARACTERS

-   -   01 Apparatus     -   02 Article     -   03 First conveyer     -   04 Second conveyer     -   05 Outer packaging     -   06 Third conveyer     -   07 Outer packaging item (outer packaging with articles placed         therein)     -   08 Placing surface     -   09 Transfer device     -   10 Transplacing device     -   13 Compartments     -   14 Device     -   21 Article group     -   31 Arrow     -   32 Portion     -   33 End section     -   41 Arrow     -   42 Portion     -   60 Start section     -   61 Arrow     -   62 Section     -   81 Arrow     -   82 Area     -   83 Double arrow     -   91 Arrow     -   101 Arrow 

1. An apparatus (01) for handling articles (02) comprising: a first conveyor (03) for the supply of articles (02), a second conveyor (04) for the supply of outer packagings (05), a third conveyor (06) for the discharge of outer items (07), and a placing surface (08) formed by a section (62, 60) of the third conveyor (06) and arranged between the first conveyor (03) and the second conveyor (04), a transfer device (09) for the transfer of supplied outer packagings (05) from the second conveyor (04) to the placing surface (08), and a transplacing device (10) for transferring articles (02) from the first conveyor (03) into outer packagings (05) having been transferred onto the placing surface (08).
 2. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein the third conveyor (06) and the second conveyor (04) are arranged in parallel to each other at least in an area (82) of the section (62, 60) of the third conveyor (06), which section (62, 60) forms the placing surface (08), and of a portion (42) of the second conveyor (04), which portion (42) abuts on the placing surface (08).
 3. The apparatus as recited in claim 2 wherein portion (42) is arranged in parallel to the section (60, 62), and overlap each other by a length (83) of at least two outer packagings.
 4. The apparatus as recited in claim 2 wherein the first conveyor (03) runs in parallel to the second conveyor (04) and to the third conveyor (06).
 5. The apparatus as recited in claim 2 wherein the section (62, 60) of the third conveyor (06), portions (32, 42) of the first conveyor (03) and of the second conveyor (04), which portions (32, 42) are arranged in parallel to each other as well as in parallel to the section (60, 62), overlap each other by the length (83) of at least two outer packagings.
 6. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein the direction of the transfer of outer packagings (05) being carried out by the transfer device (09) from the second conveyor (04) to the placing surface (08), runs, in a horizontal direction, orthogonal to the transport direction (41) of the second conveyor (04).
 7. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein the transfer device (09) comprises at least one slider.
 8. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein the second conveyor (04) and the placing surface (08) formed by a section (62, 60) of the third conveyor (06) are located on a common, first level, and the first conveyor (03) is located on a higher, second level.
 9. The apparatus as recited in claim 8 wherein the second level is located above the first level by at least the height of an outer packaging (05, 07), which is initially open and to be closed after placing the articles (02) therein.
 10. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein the closing of the outer packaging items (07) is carried out while still on the placing surface (08) or in a separate treatment step.
 11. The apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein compartments (13) are inserted into the outer packagings (05) prior to or after placing the articles (02) into outer packagings (05) having been transferred onto the placing surface (08).
 12. The apparatus as recited in claim 11 further comprising a separate introduction surface between the second conveyor (04) and the placing surface (08) in the instance of introducing compartments (13) prior to placing the articles (02).
 13. The apparatus as recited in claim 12 further comprising an additional device for transferring outer packagings (05) provided with compartments (13) from the introduction surface to the placing surface (08).
 14. A method for handling articles (02), comprising: supplying articles (02) from one or more article flows of articles (02) lined up one after the other uninterruptedly and/or with gaps between them and/or grouped, supplying outer packagings (05) independently of the articles (02) in a transport direction (41) and transferring the outer packagings (05) onto a placing surface (08) individually or groupwise transversely to the transport direction (41), placing articles (02) into outer packagings (05) staged on the placing surface (08), discharging the outer packaging items (07), independently of the supply of articles (02) and independently of the supply of outer packagings (05), now provided with articles (02) placed therein, in parallel to the transport direction (41) and in the direction of the transport direction (41) or opposite to it. 